Loosening Libations

"A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts."

This "fortune" was taped to the cash register at Sweetwaters Café when I went in today, totally frazzled because my carbon monoxide detector kept beeping and maintenance wasn't calling me back. I'll venture to say that it is self-explanatory; in short, it says, "People self-censor."

This idea probably applies to more than drunkenness. Excessive sleep-deprivation has been compared to inebriation, and given some of the impulsive, foolish things that I have said and done after all-nighters, who am I to disagree? Still, it's scary to think that those regrettable words and actions are what we are really thinking of. I like to imagine that the loss of inhibition is actually the loss of higher thought processes. In other words, yes, we are thinking those things, when sober and awake, but we are also reasoning intelligently. The latter group of thoughts just tends to override the  former in the name of self-preservation.

At least, that's what I'll tell myself the next time that I say something stupid because I'm tired. Like now.